Archive for the 'Los Angeles' Category

Calendar. 05.23.12.


Scheme, 2011, a pencil drawing by Karl Haendel. Part of the solo exhibition Informal Family Blackmail at Susanne Vielmetter Projects, in Los Angeles. Opens Saturday at 6pm, in Culver City. (Image courtesy of the artist and Susanne Vielmetter.)

Calendar. 05.09.12.


From Barry McGee’s upcoming solo at Prism LA. Opens Saturday, in West Hollywood. (Image courtesy of the artist and Prism.)

Calendar. 04.25.12.


Times, 2011, by Stanley Donwood. Part of an 18-foot panel showing the destruction of L.A. at the artist’s solo exhibit Lost Angeles, at Subliminal Projects. Opens Saturday at 8pm, in Echo Park. (Image courtesy of the artist and Subliminal Projects.)

  • L.A.: Mickalene Thomas, The Origin of the Universe, at the Santa Monica Museum of Art. Through August 19, in Santa Monica.
  • Dallas: Erwin Wurm, Beauty Business, at Dallas Contemporary. Through August.
  • NYC: Freehand Jobs, a group show at Pandemic Gallery. Opens Saturday at 7pm, in Williamsburg.
  • NYC: Charles Yuen, at Valentine. Opens Friday at 6pm, in Ridgewood/Bushwick.
  • Plus, see all my latest New York picks over at Gallerina

Photo Diary: In Wonderland, surrealist women at LACMA.


Las dos Fridas, 1939, by Frida Kahlo.


Rainy Day Canape, 1970, by Dorothea Tanning.


I Have No Shadow, 1940, by Kay Sage.

LACMA has a beguilingly weird show of surrealist artists up: In Wonderland: The Surrealist Adventures of Women in Mexico and the United States tracks surreal art in North America during the middle years of the 20th century. There’s some freaky dark stuff in the show (including a picture by Lee Miller that show mastectomied breasts on a plate). But it also has its charmingly bizarre parts (love the Tanning stuffed couch piece above). And it includes little-known works by well-known artists. Definitely worth it if you’re looking for something out of the ordinary.

In Wonderland is up through May 6th.

Continue reading ‘Photo Diary: In Wonderland, surrealist women at LACMA.’

Calendar. 04.03.12.


Beauty Parlor, Tokyo, c. 1975, by Daido Moriyama. Part of the exhibit Fracture: Daido Moriyama, at LACMA. Opens Saturday, in the Fairfax District. (Image courtesy of LACMA.)

Calendar. 03.28.12.


A rain god vessel, c. 1100-1400 from Mexico, in the Mixtec style, Middle Post Classic period (1200-1400). Part of the exhibit Children of the Plumed Serpent: The Legacy of Quetzalcoatl in Ancient Mexico, at LACMA. Opens Sunday, in the Fairfax District. (© Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas / Art Resource)

  • Fort Lauderdale: On the roster for the Girls’ Club ‘Chick Flick’ screenings: Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus and I Scream Therefore I Exist, both at Girls’ Club. This Saturday at 7pm, in downtown.
  • NYC: Donald Steele, The Queen and I, at Pocket Utopia (the gallery’s grand re-opening). Opens today at 6pm, on the Lower East Side.
  • Plus: Get the rest of my New York picks over at Gallerina….

Photo Diary: Cardboard worlds.


Carlos Bunga’s lobby installation Landscape at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. On view through April 22. (See a related video here.)


A sculpture by Paul Housley at ZieherSmith in New York. The rubber bands make it. <3<3<3 On view through April 21. (Photos by C-M.)

Miscellany. 03.12.12.


A detail from Untitled, 1979, by Gustavo Montoya. Part of the permanent collection at the Vincent Price Art Museum at East L.A. College. (Photo by C-M.)

Photo Diary: LACMA rock on the road.

Rolling Rock: Michael Heizer’s muted granite presence drew an estimated 20,000 people while it was parked in Long Beach on Wednesday. Incidentally, I recently learned that the rock is swaddled in high thread-count cotton linens. Fancy! (Photos by C-M.)

Photo Diary: Contested Visions at LACMA.


A clay sculpture of an Aztec warrior dating back to the 15th century — the first time this particular piece has been seen in the U.S.


Bring out yer dead: A detail from a painted screen depicts European notions about America, confused-looking unicorns and all. (The full screen is featured after the jump, below.)


A funerary cape crafted from the feathers of Amazonian birds, from 12-13th century Peru. Obtaining feathers, shells and materials from the furthest reaches of their empires was one of the ways that the Incas and Aztecs showed their power.

Because of various deadlines and lots of travel, we’re a little late getting up this photo essay of from LACMA’s exhibit Contested Visions, which explored the ways in which Spanish and indigenous cultures both faced off and fused in the period of colonial rule (from the 15th to the early 19th century). The show, unfortunately, has already come down, but thankfully we have this photo essay from a tour I attended with the show’s curator, Ilona Katzew. If you’re in Mexico City, expect this to land at the Museo de Historia at the Castillo de Chapultepec in July.

Continue reading ‘Photo Diary: Contested Visions at LACMA.’